TTC to resume service Sunday

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Toronto's transit system said on
Sunday it would resume service later in the day, after
Ontario's legislature ordered back to work 9,000 workers who
had gone on strike, shutting down bus, streetcar and subway
service in Canada's most populous city.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) said there may be
service delays on Sunday as it gradually calls its employees
back to work, but the system would be fully operational for
Monday's morning rush hour.

Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which
represents 9,000 operating and maintenance workers, rejected a
proposed three-year labor pact in a majority vote on Friday and
began walking off the job within hours.

There was no transit service on Saturday and for much of
Sunday.

The TTC carries more than 1.5 million passengers every week
day. A strike during the week would have caused serious
problems for many workers who rely on the service, which covers
a wide metropolitan area where some 5 million people live.

The TTC had offered 3 percent wage increases in each of the
three years of the proposed contract. An attempt at resuming
contract bargaining between the TTC and union on Saturday
failed to produce results.

The back-to-work legislation adopted in a special session
of the Ontario legislature imposes arbitration in the labor
dispute, which hinged on union demands for better wages and
benefits and concerns that the transit system was contracting
out maintenance service.